I hope somebody could help me with this.I'm tracing from Norway any information concerning a group of Finnish volunteers, who fought in Norway 1940 against the German invasion. I'm a Finnish journalist writing a book about the BBC:s Finnish language section (operative 1940-1997). In 1942 BBC did broadcast a report telling the story of 25 Finnish soldiers who came to Oslo in 1940 with their Norwegian friends who had been volunteers in the Finnish Winter War 1939-40. BBC told that those 25 Finns wanted to help their Norwegian friends and stayed in Norway to fight the Germans, starting near Hamar with the Norwegian forces who helped the King to escape later by sea to Britain. Good propaganda from the British viewpoint by that time but was it true? Have you heard anything about this? Which would be the right place in Norway to go and find any documented information related to this story? Possible the names of the Finnish soldiers as BBC did not mention the names in 1942.

A special bonus for me would be to find any Norwegian who knew any of those Finns personally.

The BBC story from 1942 mentions places like Kongsvinger and Hamar, and after that Elverum, via Österdalen to Trysil. They stayed in Norway until June 1940, BBC story says.

from Internet I have found this:http://hem.fyristorg.com/robertm/norge/history_section.html"The only field formations along river Glåma after the defeat of the Norwegian 1.Div in Östfold was the units of IR5 mobilizing at Elverum, and a small local defense unit at Kongsvinger. Detachments of the local defense unit at Kongsvinger, as well as some volunteers (from Finland and the winter war) took up positions at Skarnes, situated at a bend of river Glåma, west of Kongsvinger."

A mixed force (company-size 100+) of Swede and Norw. volounteers from the Finnish Winter War took part in the defence of Kongsvinger and north along Østerdalen to Trøndelag. Their CO was the Swedish captain Gøsta Benckert. He later wrote a memo wich is deported in Krigsarkivet Stockholm. Maybe that memo could give some clue. http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6sta_Benckert

There a Swedish officer is listed as comanding the Swedish (and Finnish??) volunteers: Tage Sixten Holmquist.One fallen soldier is listed as born in Helsinki, but being a Swedish citizen(?): Georg William von Engstrøm.

Now I have got something to start with... What is still missing are any names of the Finnish soldiers. And a clear connection to the BBC story is still missing.

In particular the story tells about a Finnish officer who "led a Finnish unit and some Norwegian soldiers against a force of 200 German soldiers (about four times their number)"...."Germans camped near a little village on the Trysil river..." the Finns and Norwegians "had only one machine gun and their rifles...Nevertheless they decided to attack and, taking the Germans by surprise they wiped out the German force almost to a man."

Surely this kind of fight, if it ever happened, must be on the records somewhere. Which little village could it be?

If anybody has any idea of it, he or she can answer me also in Norwegian. I can read it fluently.

Vesa, could it not have been the skirmish that the link I sent is about?Anyway, the one who was killed, Georg William von Engstrøm, surely could have been Finnish. The "?" indicates a uncertainity. in "Norge i krig" by Hauge, there is no mention of him being swedish citizen. Just "born in Helsinki".

B.

Last edited by Bjørn on Thu 28 Aug 2008 - 16:22; edited 1 time in total (Reason for editing : new info)